April 6, 2018

Alexa, Write Me a Newsletter

So far, Alexa ignores me when I ask her to write this newsletter. But smart speakers are already having a huge impact elsewhere. UK-based content marketing agency Delineate found that 24% of U.S. households have a smart speaker and 54% of smart speaker owners have used them for shopping.

The obvious problem with voice shopping is you can’t see your choices. Connekt addresses this by enabling smart devices to make purchases of items being shown on TV. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents said they’d buy that way. Connekt reported a 25% ownership rate for voice devices, similar to Delineate, but found only 8% of owners had made a purchase through it.

But buying through the smart device is just part of the story. Marketing platform vendor SmarterHQ found that 90% of buyers shop across multiple channels, often combining online research with in-store purchases. Making the journey still more fragmented, 53% of respondents had more than three Internet-connected devices. SmarterHQ notes that this reinforces the importance of cross-channel identity resolution. Sounds like a job for a CDP.

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